DiskFlix

Mark Cuban has a great little essay on HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future.

It is all about the data. Assuming the whole licensing thing can get worked out, the following business model would be spectacular:

• I go to a web site and choose the movies and television content i want to see … similar to NetFlix, just expanded to include TV content both present and future in HDTV format


• I choose the total number of hours i want at a time - translation: disk space size


• I receive a hard disk in the mail with the content i selected


• I plug the disk into my home entertainment system and watch what i want, when i want


• The vendor learns my viewing habits, and as i’m finishing up the current disk a new disk arrives


• I pack up the disk and send it back to the vendor

I want this for $20 a month. Or, include advertisements with the TV content and i’ll pay 10 bucks (since i’m plugging the disk into a TiVo type unit with fast-forward capability anyways).

Jim Gray + ATT = VoIP - FCC ?

The last couple of days i’ve been listening to Jim Gray at IT Conversations: SDForum. He talks at length about Distributed Computing Economics. Of particular interest is his comment:

Phone companies core competance, as far as I can tell, is lobbying.

Assuming that is true, will AT&T use thier lobbying muscle to help keep FCC out of internet phoning (VoIP)? One things for sure, they’re pushing their new service hard.

Sadly, i don’t see the numbers working out for my wallet anytime soon. If the FCC interferes, that time will likely keep getting pushed out farther and farther.

That Tune

I know the question on everyones mind, “What was that music playing during, Gold medal winner, Catalina Ponor’s Silver medal winner, Daniela Sofronie’s floor exercise performance of the 2004 Olympics in Athens?”

Glad you asked.

It’s an arrangement of Gustavo Scolieri’s composition entitled La Quiero. It’s track 8 on Puente del Diablo’s 415 album, er, CD.

Pretty neat. I had heard it twice already during this lady’s gymnastic floor exercise performances when (third times a charm) it finally hit me; i had heard this tune before…and i think i know where!

It was about 11:30pm EST5EDT when i ran back into the family room to grab the TiVo remote, hit pause, and grabbed the laptop and cranked up iTunes.

Switching between playing, rewinding, and playing the tune on TV and searching through the tracks on iTunes, i finally found it! It took awhile as La Quiero is almost 8 minutes long and the portion used in arrangement for this athelete is nearly 3 minutes into the song.

Who is this Gustavo Scolieri and “Bridge of the Devil” (Puente del Diablo) and why am i listening to “devil” music?

My wife and i heard them live at the 2002 Toronto Beaches International Jazz Festival! In July 2002, we did an eleven day Canada trip from Quebec City to Toronto to Niagara on the Lake. The jazz festival was one of the highlights.

The 415 CD was the only thing we bought that night.

An aside: i’ve never been in a crowd that large and felt that comfortable. Being a large music fest, there was a lot of beer and beverage being consumed; however, unlike a typical US event - folks weren’t getting plastered. As the bands were wrapping up at 11pm, the crowd (packed shoulder to shoulder in the street) was still a civil bunch and having a good time.

As for the devil - the bridge is a part of the guitar - and they can play the devil out of a guitar.

Update: According to the discussion at Adtunes.com, some folks believe the tune is Marbella by Armik. I’m investigating further.

Update 2: Yep, finally got a copy of video this morning. It is the Marbella tune.

RSI and You

Jono Bacon for ONLamp.com brought up a good topic: Alleviate RSI the Hacker Way. While spending a little too much time on micropauses, he skimps a little too much on the environment.

I too had wrist pain, and it was getting worse over time. Finally, had to resolve it. I already had a decent desk and chair, but a new keyboard and mouse made the biggest improvement.

First, a Microsoft Natural Keyboard. I actually got the Pro version which also sports a built-in two-port USB hub. Second, replace that old mouse with a trackball. I’m a fan of the Logitechs. At work i use a TrackMan Wheel while at home i have an older version.

Replacing these two items on my desktop relieved my pain almost overnight. In my opinion, the micropause is treating the symptom instead of the problem. Fix your form - modify your environment - and type happy.

TiVo For My Radio?

Lawrence Lessig in Digital Audio & the Copyright Gap:

So next time you’re wondering why radio isn’t any better: its not the technology that’s the problem.

The Bug is the coolest thing i’ve seen since the TiVo.

The Bug also has a timer so you can record up to two hours of radio; plus a slot for an SD card and a USB port, so you can then save recordings or back them up to your PC in MP3 format.

Ever since becoming the proud owner of a TiVo, i will instinctively grab the remote of any TV in hopes of rewinding to catch something i missed. Additionally, i have found myself several times in the car reaching to hit the CD rewind button while listening to the radio.

It is so frustrating to see technology develop that is ever increasingly useful to only see government policy lagging so far behind, and corporations crippling things because they are scared they can’t control it.

No New Mobile Fon

Jeremy Zawodny switched to Verizon and the Motorola V710 Phone. I decided to wait on a new phone since the V710 is bluetooth crippled and i really dislike all the other phones.

Will Verizon cripple the Nokia 6255 as well?

It’ll pay me ($100 credit) to wait ’til January to find out.

Yahoo RSS Feeds Broken

To Yahoo:

Your RSS Feeds for the Word of the Day and SAT Tip of the Day are broken.

I wondered why i haven’t been seeing these in my inbox; as it turns out they are not using the guid element properly. See the RSS 2.0 Spec for the gory details.

Perhaps unique should be a word of the day.

Too Separated?

In order to ensure genuine freedom of conscience for the working people, the church is separated from the State, and the school from the church: and freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.

1936 Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic

Part I, Chapter 5, Article 13

I always wondered where the phrase ’separation of church and state’ came from. (via Mike Utech)

Tapping VoIP

Reuters.com reports that the FCC has rules that Net Phone Calls Must Be Able to Be Tapped. Ugh.

It’s just amazing. We pride ourselves in the US with our skills and energy invested in research and development and innovation, but we stifle its use then countries like Korea turn around and use it (without regulation) to leap-frog us.

Adam’s Aggregation

Adam Curry has been playing around with RSS aggregation. While using some neat features of the Mac OS X Finder, i strongly prefer using the server side approach. And, as a bonus, it works on any machine i decide to sit down and use.

I treat my laptop as disposable (since it ain’t mine, pretty fair assumption) so i strive to keep the software and data present on the machine to a minimum. I use Firefox with a couple of bookmarklets: one for making bookmarks in my link manager, and another for RSS subscriptions.

I’m a fan of the three-pane email type interface (unlike Dave Winer) - primarily because it scales. Instead of recreating a specific RSS interface, using an IMAP based mail client i get what i need.

Handling enclosures works seamlessly too, i drop the RSS article of interest in an IMAP enclosure folder. Peridically, on the server side, the folder is scanned and any enclosures are downloaded. If the file is a torrent, it is automatically added to the torrent download queue (btlaunchmany, rather a slightly hacked version of it, watches the directory).

The one assumption this setup makes is that you have the bandwidth to get any enclosure data to the desktop.

Verizon’s First Bluetooth Phone

From eWeek: Verizon to Launch Its First Bluetooth Phone.

Verizon Wireless last week announced plans to sell the Motorola V710 phone, marking the first time the carrier will offer a device that supports Bluetooth technology.

Sadly, Verizon has chosen to sell the phone as crippled.

Depending on the price point, it may still be worth it to me for use with iSync.

RSS Scaling Problems

Jeremy Zawodny brings up RSS Scaling Problems: How Can We Help?

One thing that quickly comes to mind is additions/changes since last request. Some bloggers will stick their last 100 entries in a full-text RSS feed and all i need is the most recent single entry. Yet, i have to grab the entire feed, parse, check guid’s (hopefully) and determine which ones are the newest. I already keep around Last-Modified and ETag data, can existing blogware use those headers to put together only relevant feed info (new to me data)?

Doc’s Blogback

Doc Searls dropped me a note; i did make a mental note of his single post regarding the genocide in the Sudan, but didn’t note it here.

It’s worth noting yet again. The mainstream media outlets have ignored it. My hunch is there is very little political ammo to be had…

P.S. Since i’m getting less comment spam with WP than MT, i’m now turning off comments after 90 days instead of 30.

On Holiday

On holiday for another week, see ya’ll soon.